Right On Target

2

In the back office, Tonya had assembled a team of stapping young men--Alex included. There were five altogether. One was another student that went to Alex's high school. They had had some class together at some point but he was rather unremarkable in Alex's mind. Another was the local stoner, working at Target only because his parents made him get a "real" job while his "rap career" takes off. The other two were working their way through community college. Not that it matters for the purposes of this story or in Alex's life in general, but there are other people in the world with their own stories.

Tonya stood in front of the group and gave them a stern look. "We have a very important shipment coming in next week," she explained. "As some of you know, a high-profile album is being relased on Monday, and I expect that there will be teenage girls aplenty storming the store."

"Is it One Direction?" asked the stoner, Doug. "My sister has been talking about One Direction all week."

"No!" said Eric, the other boy from Alex's high school. Eric occaisonally spelled his name Erique. Alex wondered if that was his flamboyant persona. He remembered a campaign Erique had started a few weeks ago when Tonya refused to print ERIQUE on his nametag. He continued, "Anyone who's anyone nows the 1D album doesn't come out until November 17!" Erique rolled his eyes and so did Tonya.

Tonya raised her hands in exasperation. "No, it's Taylor Swift's CD."

Eric squealed. "Yaass mama!" he exclaimed.

Tonya glared at him. "So the reason I called this meeting is because I need the five of you to stay late Sunday evening to set up the display." She pulled open a box and removed a life-size Taylor Swift cardboard cutout. She seemed less than pleased.

"But I have school Monday morning," Alex argued.

"I don't care," said Tonya. "This is not negotiable. You'll stay until after closing. We're also getting the floors waxed that night by an illegal immigrant named Guillermo. He has a key to the store, so he'll lock up behind you."

Alex was pretty pooped off but he didn't want to get fired. He needed the money from this job to pay for his big field trip. His business class was taking a trip to New York City in the spring and--he loved his mother dearly, let the record show--but she was really struggling right now. She had to drop out of college when she became pregnant with Alex and, although she found a pretty decent job in wireless phone sales, her hours had been cut back as of late. She'd had to pick up some shifts bartending at the P.J. Calamity's a couple of nights a week. So Alex was, for lack of a more appropriate word, desperate to keep the job he tolerated so nicely. Thus, he would stay late Sunday evening despite his full school schedule Monday morning including tennis practice after school.